Armies on Parade I

On my list of hobby targets this year I have Armies on Parade. Now I started this last year so I’ve got a good head start and my idea hasn’t changed either, which is also good, I do have a habit of changing direction mid project 🙂

The inspiration for this project comes from three pieces of art work.

These pieces, all done by John Blanche, are three of my favourites and I have spent untold hours staring at them as a teen. Now I want to create something special which combines elements from each one but with my own interpretation and all three images lend themselves greatly to inspiring an Armies on Parade project.

So lets take a look at my progress so far.

Lots of materials have been combined, from 3D printed elements and plastic bits to natural parts like the branches. The ground is textured resin parts and wall filler and there are a few GW bits used as well. Long way to go before I can get priming and so far I’m pretty pleased with how things are turning out. A few more gothic building pieces are needed I think and I’ve been toying with idea of giving it a painted back drop.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! It needs skulls. Lots more SKULLS!!!

Below is a not very good teaser shot of what my Dark Angels are going to look like. I’ve opted for a Dark Angel Horus Heresy era armour colour as I have never really liked my Dark Angels green. They were black in the Rogue Trader days and they shall remain that way! The Death Wing bone is a must as well, with feathers! 🙂

Until next time. Happy hobby!

Horus Heresy Blood Angels I

The start of my Blood Angels HH army started with making some dice boxes. As is appropriate with Blood Angels the boxes are coffins. I bought the blank boxes from a craft store in town and then designed the inserts using CAD and 3D printing them in a lovely shiny red flexible material. I then filled the lid section with Blood Angel bits to make it look like a relic. All this was then painted with the usual red and gold.

The dice fit perfectly and because the material is flexible they are easy to get out but will not fall out. The ultimate goal of this project is to make a relic type box to store the army in along with these dice coffins and other gaming essentials. I have the parts now, so all I need is the drive and time. Keep watching this space!

The Daemon Ink Campaign

Hello ladies and gents! So it’s happened! I’ve found myself inspired enough to finally write up a campaign, last time I did one it was The Chapel event and that was way back in 2017. Time flies and as most of us have ended up with more time I’d thought I create an event again with aim to play it next year, once all this weirdness is over. The invite is for everyone and if you’d like to join me for the actual games when they occur then, as time passes, let me know. Numbers will dictate where it will be held.

The Daemon Ink is an ][nq28 campaign, which will set war bands of either pure intent or corrupted madness against each other as the fight for control of a valuable Fortress Library World of the Inquisition. The name of that planet is Otera.

So this is the setting now lets take a look at some of the characters and NPC’s that populate the libraries of Otera.

Stewards : These guys have already been introduced in the short story Morde’rya. They are the order that attends to the daily running of the vast libraries. The order is split into units. Each unit has it’s own section of the vast library to care for and their knowledge is limited to that section. No Steward can activate the Portals that lead to other sections. Many Stewards have been sacrificed by the Scribes and their masters, but there is hope that some have survived.

Librarians : Keepers of the knowledge. Their wisdom is great and they are the ones who attend to the books, data stacks and scrolls. They have access to all sections of the Library and are very adept at using the Portals. No area is off limits to them. Some seem to have turned to the dark powers and many are missing. The hope is that they are in hiding using their knowledge to keep them safe or they may be taking the fight to their corrupted fellows and joining a war band pure of soul to reclaim the holy library.

Scribes : The corrupted ones. The scribes are the playthings of the dark gods and are the ones who have spread the corruption. It is unknown if any avoided this fate. They gather in groups around their constructed Daemon Wells and chant the corrupting litanies that break the veil allowing daemon spawn to spew forth. Directed by fallen Inquisitors larger groups have been found and truly destructive forces have been unleashed.

I’ve made really good progress on the boards the first of which was the Mag Bellum setup shown here. That set will be used to create parts of the vast sections of the library but first you’ll have to get in.

This is the entrance.

Who will be defending this entrance? That is something you’ll have to wait for. It’s not going to be pleasant though and war bands will have to be smart with how they go about it.

When creating your characters for your war bands please use the guide below.

As a rule no heavy weapons are allowed but I’ll elaborate on the details in a follow up post but for now go get kitbashing!

If you want to take part please be sure to reference this post or use the #thedaemonink

That’s it for now I think, so I’ll leave you with another image of the Entrance board to get the mood flowing. Until next time.

Challenge round up!!

Hello all! Long time no write on my behalf and I’ve just had a flick through what you’ve all been up to and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. You busy bunch!

So why the silence? Well I’ve been busy moving work location and trying to keep the business afloat. It’s been hard going these last few months and I’ve had to change my outlook for this year. The first change that I’m in the process of making is the change to the blog. It’s become a shop! I’m still in the process of creating it but when it’s finished it’ll have my Mag Bellum tile system to purchase, random bits and models I create and a download section for large terrain pieces so you can 3D print them yourself. Busy, Busy, Busy!!! So as you can imagine this all takes some time, as well as dealing with the real world and it’s challenges I have, however found some time to get some hobby stuff done, as it’s tied in nicely with my goals for the blog and business.

JANUARY CHALLENGE. Scenery.

Azazel January challenge, I decided to have a bash at trying to finish off one of my Mag Bellum skirmish boards. Geared towards ][nq28 gaming this one is called The Obsidian Room and it’s a prototype for things to come with the system, namely multi level sections. Unfortunately I didn’t quite get it finished but I was damn close!

 

 

FEBRUARY CHALLENGE. Fembruary

So Alex decided to get the Fembruary challenge going again and I jumped on it straight away! For this I decided to paint one of my own sculpts the Plague Shepherd. She’s been sitting around half done for a while and so it was time I got the paint out and slap some on her. I’m pretty pleased with how she’s come out and will be adding some plague ridden little creeps for her to herd around soon. Once they are done I will be attempting a kick starter with her, so keep tuned for more info.

Mag Bellum

Hello folks!

So my tile system Mag Bellum is nearly ready for release. It’s been a bit of a ride getting here and after all the hard work I have to say I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turned out. This, the first edition of the system, will be available from the beginning of next week and I’ll be hosting the first Bellum Knights day on the 2nd of December, which will be held at The Museum of Futures in Surbiton Greater London, so if you are in the area or wouldn’t mind traveling to attend then please drop me a line. At these events I hope to have a group of gamer’s attend and play the games we love like Inq28, AoS28, 40K, AoS, Kill Team, Necromunda and Morheim all on the Mag Bellum tile system as well as other boards that will be created for campaign events. The aim is to have a Bellum Knights event monthly and hopefully in the future have workshops as well.

Well that’s enough prattling on for the moment let’s get to the pictures! They are all in moody black and white as it’s at the primed stage except the trees, which were painted by Alex and have been found on many a battle field.

This edition is the Skirmish and is 2ft x 2ft. It consists of 16 tiles, 7 of which are blank with the rest having plates that insert into their tiles. The idea is that you build your scenery on these plates so that the buildings or other terrain are not sitting on the surface ( you can do that to of course ) but look as if they are built onto the board. Extra plates and tiles will be available in packs of five as well so you can expand your board and add even more variety to a setup. Each tile is 150mm x 150mm x 6mm and is magnetized by 2 magnets on each side. This allows them to click into place nicely. Now because the magnets come unfitted I needed a way of fitting them into the tiles as they are small and fiddly and my first attempt at getting them in the right way was messy and frustrating with a lot of glue sticking my fingers to everything.  So I set about engineering a tool that will make this job easier and less messy.

 

Introducing the Mag-tool.

 

I will be doing an animation on how you use the Mag-tool soon but basically it allows you stick and then slide the magnet into place.

 

 

The main idea behind Mag Bellum though is that it’s designed to be a space-saving system, so after you’ve finished the battle you can just take the scenery off and stack the tiles away safely in their box. More on that next time but for now some more images of the board in a slightly different setup.

Well that’s it for this update. If you are interested then you can follow Mag Bellum on Face book and Instagram for all the latest updates plus info on up and coming events and campaigns.

Thanks for the support 🙂

Stylites Revealed

Hello all you lovely hobby goblins!

Today I have a treat for you all. I few weeks ago I hinted at a thing called Stylites and now it is the time to reveal what it is.

‘Stylites’ is a fast paced ‘push your luck’ mini-game set in the Chapel – a mysterious edifice set in the grim darkness of the far future. In this game, you take on the role of an intrepid skull-jacker – one of the deep denizens of the Chapel, and you are tasked with maintaining the servoskulls within your territory. The problem is, your territory consists of whole caverns filled with stylites – towering poles topped with tiny platforms, where ascetic penitents live out their days trying to atone for their sins, (both real and imagined). The servoskulls that you service float among these platforms, monitoring the penance of these strange individuals, so doing your job involves death-defying leaps from platform to platform, and dealing with the unhinged penitents who live on them… As if that wasn’t difficult enough, rival ‘jackers are trying to encroach on your turf, and turn your precious servoskulls against you!

It’s a game and a free one at that. You will be able to find the downloadable rules later on in the post, but first a little bit about the creation of the game. Stylites means ‘ pillar dweller ‘ and I liked the word and what it meant so I had the idea that I would make a whole board of these things, just because I thought it would look cool. But how to play on such a board? So the idea of making rules came to me. Help was needed on this little quest and I contacted Alex of the leadballoony variety and we arranged a much-needed catch up with some dice throwing. So we set about making a game. It took us most of the day with playtesting as well and even with the most ones I’ve ever seen someone roll in all my life we managed to have a few good games where Alex didn’t just fall off his Stylite. With the basic rules all done we returned to our lives with duties to fulfill. Alex was to write the rules out and I was to create the board and the scenery to go with it and providing Alex with the same scenery to create his own board. Something to look out for soon.

THE BOARD

Below is the board I created. Its 2 x 2 and can be arranged in different ways. The platforms can be turned to add more variation as well. Also the Stylites themselves come off so it is easy to pack away.

I also made a measuring tool to go with it. All nice and dirty!

CHARACTERS

You have the scene, now on to the characters. But wait, I have none to show you. That’s because, my hobby nuts, its competition time!! All you need to do is come up with two characters, a Skull Jacker and a Penitent with a paragraph written about each. The rules are as follows.

1 : Characters must be on a 25mm base.

2 : GW bits only.

3 :  Posts must be linked to this page. Instagram # stylites.

4 : Must be submitted by October 31st.

5 : Final images and the fluff must be sent to my email, which you can find in my about page.

PRIZE!

So whats the prize I hear you say……… Well this is.

A BIG SKULL CRAB!!! This creepy mechanized monster stands at 40mm high and can be used to mount big guns on, carry around a suitably deranged character of your own devising, or just left how it is. It comes in two parts and is made of resin and was produced at Black Edge 3D.

So get cracking on those characters! I look forward to seeing what you all create and then judging you on it ;P

THE RULES

Click on the link to Download the rules.

Stylites rules

It’s a pretty simple game and can be played quickly. Any feed back is welcome as we plan to expand on the basic rules.

And if you are interested in having a set of Stylites you will be able to order them from my shop pages very soon. ( I’m away in August for two weeks ) The complete set consists of all the pieces pictured below x 20, or you can purchase just the platforms and create your own.

Please allow a few weeks for me to make them as I have to cast them to order.  Either way I hope you enjoy playing it and good luck to all who take part in the competition.

Next Stylite post. Battle report!

In Midnight Clad

Just before Christmas last year I got a package in the mail. Inside this package was a beast of a Space Marine from the very talented and generous Wier brothers of Between the Bolter and me. Now I felt like Christmas had come early! So I sat down at my bench and poured out the bits. Cast in a white resin the finish was really good and the parts went together nicely, with enough spares to have fun with later. Once I’d done a load if fiddling around with white tak I sat back and looked at this monster of a Marine. He’s tall! Primarch tall and an imposing sight. This all added to the conundrum of what colours to paint him. I wanted to do it justice and I knew I wanted to do something I hadn’t done before, so after I’d completed the posing and the bits additions and placed him on a base, I left him on the bench for a while, a menacing presence out the corner of my eye as I worked on other models and gave him thought.

I’d already had an idea for him but I wanted to be sure and I went through all the chapters but I was destined to come back to the original idea. In Midnight Clad! The Night Lords. One of my favorite Legions and also one that I have never in my long years in this hobby have painted. Perfect choice.

Night Lords in my view should be dark. Not blue like some are painted but the colour of blue-tinted night and that’s what I’ve tried to achieve here. It was a challenge to paint as I’d also never attempted painting lightning before and this proved to be very difficult and sorely tested my free hand skills, something I really need to brush up on ( pun intended 😉 Below you can see the result and while I’m happy enough with it I can see room for improvement and I may go back over it to see if I can add to it in the future.

 

The character idea for him was one of a hunter. A cold hearted killer who does it for fun. I think the gun the Wiers made is fantastic and suits this sort of image.

 

Getting the chance to paint a model like this is awesome and as with all models you should learn something new. I have with this one as it pushed me to do something I’d never done before and try new ways of painting, like using pigments for shading to try to capture the effect of shadows on his armour, lightning moving across his armoured plates and painting night shade blue. It was a wonderful model to work on and thank you to the Wiers for sending it.

Display Tile 1

Welcome to the first display tile post. In these I will be showcasing my display tiles and showing a few w.i.p images as well with brief descriptions on the process.

The display tile idea came about so I could add to the narrative of my characters by placing them in particular scenes of note. The first of these are settings in which my new ][nq28 war band, pictured below, are taking part in.

The introduction to some of these characters can be found in earlier posts with the rest to follow soon, if only there were more time in a day or better still a three day weekend! It’s only the beginning of the year and already I have a back log 🙂 Any way the stories have begun and the scenes are being made and I’m sure I’ll have them finished by mid year………or later 😉

So to kick things off are a few images of the first tile without any Photoshop parts added. I used one lamp from above to light it and white paper was used to surround it. This makes it easier to add the photoshop elements later.

The materials used to create this tile are as follows.

GW bits. Parts from the tree kit and the flesh eater courtiers.

Scenery parts designed by myself, which can be found in the shop page.

Left over resin support bases from 3D printing. I’ve been trying to find a use for these for a while now because it’s such a waste and I’m loathed to throw resin away. So to use them as the textured floor worked really well and will do it again as I have so many of them.

Skulls, candles and random bits plus the usual suspects when texturing up a tile or base.

All was painted using washes and pigments with areas being drybrushed in grey and toned with washes.

Fake grass was added last in random areas.

Once I had the character placed right and the shot I wanted I open it up in Photoshop and began to create the background image. This one is of a worn ancient wall with a dark foreboding entrance and I used images taken on my trips to castles and various old or ruined stone structures I have seen over the years.

Although it takes a while I feel it adds to the process of a narrative wonderfully and is very rewarding. To have you’re characters placed in a scene it’s like a snap shot from a film.

Mercy Enters Alone

 

Well there you have it. I hope you like it and any questions please ask.

Gryph, Coil, Prowl and Mort

Hi guys!

Just a little post about some little characters.

 

Gryph.

Gryph is a Brazier Drone but he’s also a messenger. He can be seen lighting the way through the trees or the streets for those who need it and sometimes he has a message to carry too. I say sometimes because on some occasions he feels the need to burn the message in the flame that constantly burns from his back. Maybe burning messages breaks up his otherwise tedious existence, maybe it makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, whatever the reason through spite or just bad programing no one really knows why this happens and some people have taken to following him to make sure the message is received. Why they can’t just tell them themselves is beyond Gryph. It all seems rather insane.

 

Coil.

Coil is a guard and so takes himself, and his job very seriously. He constantly tells everyone who needs his services that he’s been a guard in all his past lives and that he’s the best at it. This has been proven time and time again though and his trick is be unseen until the last-minute when he’ll usually uncoil himself from hiding and either lash out with his sharp whip like tail or, if the threat is deemed too high, douse the intruder with flame. In this way coil has prevented many intruders from access to his masters houses or work places, and he’s also dealt with a few annoying and unwelcome in-laws as well. After all Coil is loyal only to his current master but it’s usually when a family member dies he is forced to move on.

 

Prowl.

Prowl is a cat-like, stimm charged rodent catcher. He can be found prowling around or stalking his prey in amongst the trees or in the streets and buildings where an infestation has been found. Some of his prey is larger than he but Prowl takes this as a challenge and he’s not yet been defeated by any mutated, two-headed, spine tailed rat. He has a secret weapon you see, a highly powerful laser for his right eye. BBQ rats can be found littering the streets at times and the homeless have been reliant on him as a source of food for some time. Some even venerate him as a saviour, but Prowl doesn’t care he’s just here to do a job and the next plagued monstrosity is only around the corner. It is however a good thing to have a population watching your back and Prowl is never lost for friends or care

 

Mort.

Mort is a Brazier Drone and that’s it. He spends most of his time chasing his shadow and so has a very erratic way of floating. This has of course caused him to bump into people and sometimes cause third degree burns. It’s also been known for him to set fire to the surrounding woods if he’s allowed to venture into it. This is all very annoying but no one seems to get his parameters set right and so it’s only very drunk people who follow him.

 

Group shot.

Children of Terra

“We’ve found it Zac! We’ve found the place grandfather told us about.”

Zac looked at it with unease. The place was dark and foreboding and the skull tree reached out with menacing branches of bone, pipes and filth. If the tree had any wood in it like the ones his mother had shown him from an old off world book she cherished then you couldn’t tell. Skull trees were everywhere down here and they seemed to grow from the very ground, bringing what lay beneath up through the surface and bursting into existence like a tumour of decay and pollution. They resemble trees but surely nothing natural could ever grow in such a place.

“Whats the matter with you? Aren’t you excited we finally found it?” Tilly asked him.

“Yes but it’s so spooky down here and it feels like we’re being watched.” Zac said.

“That’s just all the grinning skulls silly! I thought you’d be used to them by now.” Tilly said as she softly punched him on the shoulder.

Zac ingnored the punch and looked at what lay at the base of what must have been a column in ages past. It was ancient and rusted but there was no mistaking what it was. Tilly looked at it to and with whispered awe said

” The head of one of the God Emperors Angels.”

Zac just starred at it and made a promise to himself he will never touch it. It was a secret thier grandfather had told them before he had passed away. He had told them to find it would be a blessing upon them and they must keep it safe for the distant past should never be forgotten and the relics that remain should be preserved. He mentioned a great war, like the one they all learn about and said it is from that time. Seeing it now with his sister he could really believe it.

” Do you think others know of it?” he asked Tilly

” Nah. Gramps was a pretty secretive man and he has intrusted us with this knowledge and we must keep it. We are defenders of the faith now Zac!” Tilly said putting on her best I’m braver than anybody voice.

Zac smiled. He liked the sound of that.

” We need to come here as often as we can.” Tilly told him

” This can be our secret place. A place of safety where the Emperor can watch over us and we can play and pray. We will do good deeds in our life little brother and if we ever get lost we will know where to find each other.”

Zac smiled again and hugged his big sister. She was always so full of hope.

” Come on we need to get back. We will come back tomorrow.” She said holding his hand.

They began their journey back up through the layers of skull trees and pipes, filth and decay. The long dead of history watching them every step of the way.

This is the second in a series that I’ve been chipping away at, the first of which you can find here

This one is called Children of Terra. It is about that old childhood thing where you found places to hide, to be alone, to be safe. Places that only you and your sibblings new about, the places we escape to. We have places like that in our older years and for many of you reading this it’ll be the man cave or garage, a bedroom, a place where we are at peace and so totally ingrossed in what we are doing that all of lifes cares and worries fade away for a while.

So this is what these kids have found and it has also given them a sense of purpose in what must be a very hard life. They have found a pocket of hope in a very hopeless world, but it is only a hope that a child could see.